Developing improved biofuel crops requires a better understanding of cell wall biosynthesis and the role of cell wall polymers in plant growth and development. The Cell Wall Biology Group is identifying the enzymes and regulatory proteins required for the biosynthesis of polysaccharides and glycoproteins in the cell wall. This knowledge is applied to modify the composition of cell walls in plants for improved production of biofuels and bioproducts. Because altered cell walls can influence plants in multiple ways, it is important to ensure that engineered plants with modified cell walls or bioproducts are robust and high-yielding under conditions prevailing in the field. The Cell Wall Biology Group is specifically studying how cell wall changes may impact the response of plants to drought as well as the interactions with beneficial microorganisms, especially arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The research group is also investigating the broader response of the microbial communities in sorghum roots and rhizosphere to engineering of sorghum for the accumulation of bioproducts or reduced recalcitrance.
Projects
- Structure and function of glycosyltransferases involved in biosynthesis of hemicellulose, pectin, and other glycans
- Engineering of plants with modified polysaccharide composition and increased content of easily fermentable sugars
- The impact of cell wall composition on interactions between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and rhizobia
- The role of root exudates in engineered sorghum in shaping the rhizosphere microbiome
Non-JBEI Projects
- Biosynthesis and glycosylation of bioactive specialized metabolites from plants
- Cell surface interactions with microbial communities
Featured Publications
- “Biochemical and structural characterization of glycosyltransferase family 61 proteins reveal a key determinant of sugar donor specificity,” bioRxiv (2025)
- “Impact of Drought Stress on Sorghum bicolor Yield, Deconstruction, and Microbial Conversion Determined in a Feedstocks-to-Fuels Pipeline,” ACS Sust Chem Eng (2024)
- “Unraveling Plant-Microbe Symbioses using Single-cell and Spatial Transcriptomics,” Trends Plant Sci (2024)
- “Complete biosynthesis of QS-21 in engineered yeast,” Nature (2024)
- “Spatial co-transcriptomics reveals discrete stages of the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis,” Nature Plants (2024)
- “Deciphering triterpenoid saponin biosynthesis by leveraging transcriptome response to methyl jasmonate elicitation in Saponaria vaccaria,” Nature Commun (2023)
- “Field Performance of Switchgrass Plants Engineered for Reduced Recalcitrance,” Frontiers Plant Sci (2023)
- “Structural and Biochemical Insight into a Modular β-1,4-Galactan Synthase in Plants,” Nature Plants (2022)
- “Engineering sorghum for higher 4-hydroxybenzoic acid content,” Metab Eng Commun (2022)
- “Expression of Dehydroshikimate Dehydratase in Sorghum Improves Biomass Yield, Accumulation of Protocatechuate, and Biorefinery Economics,” ACS Sust Chem Eng (2022)
- “Bioenergy Belowground: challenges and opportunities for phenotyping roots and the microbiome for sustainable bioenergy crop production,” Plant Phemone J (2022)
- “Overexpression of the rice BAHD acyltransferase AT10 increases xylan-bound p-coumarate and reduces lignin in Sorghum bicolor,” Biotechnol Biofuels (2021)
- “Cell Wall Compositions of Sorghum bicolor Leaves and Roots Remain Relatively Constant Under Drought Conditions,” Front Plant Sci (2021)
- “In-planta production of the biodegradable polyester precursor 2-pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid (PDC): Stacking reduced biomass recalcitrance with value-added co-product,” Metab Eng (2021)
- “Reprogramming Sphingolipid Glycosylation is Required for Endosymbiont Persistence in Medicago truncatula,” Curr Biol (2021)
- “Evolutionary Gain of Oligosaccharide Hydrolysis and Sugar Transport Enhanced Carbohydrate Partitioning in Sweet Watermelon Fruits,” Plant Cell (2021)
- “Expression of a bacterial 3-dehydroshikimate dehydratase (QsuB) reduces lignin and improves biomass saccharification efficiency in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.),” BMC Plant Biol (2021)
- “The TaCslA12 gene expressed in the wheat grain endosperm synthesizes wheat-like mannan when expressed in yeast and Arabidopsis,” Plant Sci (2020)
- “No evidence for transient transformation via pollen magnetofection in several monocot species,” Nature Plants (2020)
- “Microscale thermophoresis as a powerful tool for screening glycosyltransferases involved in cell wall biosynthesis,” Plant Methods (2020)
- “Visualizing Pectin Polymer-Polymer Entanglement Produced by Interfacial Water Movement,” Carbohydr Polym (2020)
- “An iron (II) dependent oxygenase performs the last missing step of plant lysine catabolism,” Nature Communications (2020)
- “Synthesis and function of complex sphingolipid glycosylation,” Trends Plant Sci (2020)
- “Engineering of Bioenergy Crops: Dominant Genetic Approaches to Improve Polysaccharide Properties and Composition in Biomass,” Front Plant Sci (2020)
- “Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation of sorghum leaves for accelerating functional genomics and genome editing studies,” BMC Res Notes (2020)
- “Molecular characteristics of plant UDP-arabinopyranose mutases.” Glycobiology (2019)
- “Production of clovamide and its analogs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactococcus lactis.” Lett Appl Microbiol (2019)
- “PMR5, an acetylation protein at the intersection of pectin biosynthesis and defense against fungal pathogens.” Plant J (2019)
- “A dominant negative approach to reduce xylan in plants.” Plant Biotechnol J (2019)
- “A screening method to identify efficient sgRNAs in Arabidopsis, used in conjunction with cell-specific lignin reduction.” Biotechnol Biofuels (2019)
- “Methyl ketone production by Pseudomonas putida is enhanced by plant-derived amino acids.” Biotechnol Bioeng (2019)
- “A Golgi UDP-GlcNAc transporter delivers substrates for N-linked glycans and sphingolipids.”Nature Plants (2018)
- “Drought delays development of the sorghum root microbiome and enriches for monoderm bacteria.”Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2018)
- “A transgene design for enhancing oil content in Arabidopsis and Camelina seeds.”Biotechnol Biofuels (2018)
- “Gene stacking of multiple traits for high yield of fermentable sugars in plant biomass.”Biotechnol Biofuels (2018)
- “Overexpression of a rice BAHD acyltransferase gene in switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) enhances saccharification“, BMCBiotechnology (2018)
- “Increased drought tolerance in plants engineered for low lignin and low xylan content”, Biotechnology for Biofuels (2018)
- “Production of muconic acid in plants”, Metabolic Engineering (2018)
- “Technology turbocharges functional genomics.”Plant Cell (2017)
- “The Sequence of 1504 Mutants in the Model Rice Variety Kitaake Facilitates Rapid Functional Genomic Studies.”, Plant Cell (2017)
- “A comparative study of sample preparation for staining and immunodetection of plant cell walls by light microscopy.”, Frontiers Plant Sci (2017)
- “Plant cell wall glycosyltransferases: high-throughput recombinant expression screening and general requirements for these challenging enzymes.”, PLoS One (2017)
- “The elaborate route for UDP-arabinose delivery into the Golgi of plants.”, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2017)
- “Endoribonuclease-Based Two-Component Repressor Systems for Tight Gene Expression Control in Plants.”, ACS Synthetic Biol (2017)
- “Enhancing digestibility and ethanol yield of Populuswood via expression of an engineered monolignol 4-O-methyltransferase”, Nature Communications (2016)
- “Glycosylation of inositol phosphorylceramide sphingolipids is required for normal growth and reproduction in Arabidopsis.”, Plant J (2016)
- “UUAT1 a Golgi-localized UDP-glucuronic acid transporter defines the plant cell wall content of arabinose and galacturonic acid.”, Plant Cell (2017)
- “Exploiting members of the BAHD acyltransferase family to synthesize multiple hydroxycinnamate and benzoate conjugates in yeast.”, Microb Cell Fact (2016)
- “Cell Wall Composition and Candidate Biosynthesis Gene Expression Across Rice Development.”, Plant Cell Physiol (2016)